Beautiful Stranger
by luv.miseryink
Summary: Someone suffers, and someone watches. The sufferer is a stranger, yet the witness thought he knew him so well...


**Beautiful Stranger**

A/N: recently, a friend of mine has been having a really hard time, and it inspired me to write this one-shot about Kai during G-Rev. the narrator isn't exactly specified, and i know it sounds a bit OC to be Tala, but at this point, i leave it to you guys' interpretation. so i dedicate this to Oliver, wherever you are, and i want to see you smile again.

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He sat across from me, calm, relaxed, yet unseeing, his eyes hollow and lost, the once fiery orbs burnt to ashes .It was as if someone had sucked out his soul, leaving behind only an empty shell with no function. No words flowed from his mouth, yet the message was simple: he did not want to live.

It pained me to see him suffer so, but there was nothing I could offer him, no words of comfort that would make him feel better. The idea of being useless made me sick, and I hated myself a thousand times for not doing anything. Someone I thought I knew so well, someone I had grown up with, someone I had survived hell with, was out of my reach, drifting further and further away from me.

When the battle was over, he may have survived, but his heart did not. He left his heart to be claimed by another, to be enjoyed by the devils of pain and suffering, as the rest of the world watched. Who was he to turn to? His family had been claimed by angels forever ago, and the closet thing he had to a relation was me, who could only watch as he staggered off. Alone.

I had chased after him, struggling to say something worthwhile, even though I knew it would be of no use. My hand grasped his shoulder, pulling him back to face me. He purposely looked away, knowing I could and would read his eyes. I scrambled frantically for a comment or a word when he brushed off my trembling hand and kept walking, never looking back. I shouted his name several times, afraid of losing him yet again to the darkness within. It was not his time. And I never wanted it to be.

They lost him for several days. One day there, the next day gone. He seemed capable of vanishing at will, because he solely believed no one cared. No one had cared for him in the past, and his mind was set on thinking no one ever would care for him. We proved him wrong though, even though he would never admit it. His pride stood in the way of that, no matter how many times I had attempted to knock down that barrier. All those futile efforts, all those times, had never broken his defenses, only lowered them slightly.

Did he know that there were people who had cried for him, and had worried for him, when he suffered alone? Did he realize, that despite his mask of indifference, those close to him knew ho he felt, yet were too afraid of saying anything? I wanted to tell him, to tell him he didn't need tobe alone, that it was alright to fall back into someone's arms once in a while, because it didn't show a person's weakness. Instead, it revealed a person's trust and faith in their friends, and that their bonds were unbreakable, no matter what was thrown at them. I wonder if he could sense that.

Now as I glanced at the lone wolf in front of me, I saw all his past battle scars exposed on his pale, ghostly white skin. Beatings and lacerations stood out, as did the stress and the weariness. Despite our differences, I wanted nothing more than to erase the meaning of those scars, my scars the result of not even half the torture he had went through.

He raised his head a little bit, a small gasp escaping my dry lips. His eyes were not as empty, a little bit of color restored in them. I had never seen him in this dazed sort of state before, and it scared me. The once indifferent and cold-hearted appearing captain was replaced with a broken child, lost, and given up all hope. There was a vulnerability to him I never wanted to see, and I couldn't help but walk over to him, and tentatively wrap my arms around his fragile, strong build. He did not struggle, the fight in him gone, and I whispered into his ear, "It'll be okay. I promise." I forced those words into his ear several times, as if saying them in over like a prayer would make them come true. I held onto him as if he were the last thing I had on Earth, before I reluctantly let go.

Foreign tears glided down his cheeks, and I felt my own, my heart choking my throat. I smiled weakly at him, turning quickly on my heel before I fell apart. My hand reached the doorknob, and I pushed it open, maybe with a little more force than necessary. I choked, and stumbled blearily out the room, shutting the door behind me, collapsing against the wall, my sobs echoing the hall.

And the stranger I had left in the room smiled weakly at my cries, before dissolving into his own sobs, our despair, sorrow, and pain for each other and ourselves rising in unison.

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**A/N:** now i think about it, narrator does seem a little OC, but you guys use your imagination. and hit the review button. it will make this writer very happy.

luv, miseryink


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